Honour Bound
by BenquashaFraser
Summary: Benton Fraser wakes up on the floor to find there is a woman sleeping in his bed and he has no recollection of the night before. Shelved I don't like the story, maybe one day I'll pick it up again.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Benton Fraser, Francesca Vecchio or Ray Vecchio. Someone else does, I'm just borrowing them.

* * *

**Honour bound**

Benton Fraser rubbed his eyes and stretched. It took him a few moments to register that he was lying on the floor. He knew that he had gone to sleep, last night, on the floor on purpose because he was lying on his roll mat, but he couldn't remember why. Diefenbaker was lying on the floor next to him so he hadn't given his bed to the wolf, not that he normally would do that. Ben sat up and looked at the figure in his bed. His eyes widened in terror as he spotted the ring on her finger.

"Oh dear," he whispered to himself. Looking at his own hands he breathed a sigh of relief, he wasn't wearing a ring. It was worrying to him that he couldn't remember anything from the night before, the last thing he remembered was Francesca Vecchio meeting him after his shift at the consulate. Ray had been unable to meet him due to the case he was working and so Francesca had offered him a ride home. He'd felt that to refuse her offer would have been taken as an insult so he had accepted. She had given him a cup of coffee and he had felt a little light headed so she had helped him into the car. After that he couldn't remember anything.

The brown haired woman in his bed began to stir. Perhaps she would be able to explain what had happened the night before to him.

"Francesca," he whispered softly. She rolled over to look down at him and smiled. The smile scared him. Heck, the woman scared him.

"Yes Benny?" She asked him. She was going for an innocent expression and tone of voice but she wasn't succeeding. Her wide eyes, predaceous smile and bouncing tone of voice made Ben want to run to the middle of the snow fields in the Northwest Territories, dig the deepest hole he could and hide. He found Francesca Vecchio to be a very intimidating presence. He'd much prefer to be facing a criminal, who was armed with a firearm while he was only armed with his wits, Inuit stories and his hat. The odds were much more in his favour then than when he was in a room with Francesca Vecchio, his arm just inches from the box containing his father's rifle.

"What happened last night?" Francesca looked hurt and Ben began to worry even more. With the low light level he couldn't tell whether her hurt was feigned or genuine but that didn't matter for now. He didn't want to hurt her but he really had to know what had happened and why he couldn't remember.

"You mean you don't remember!" Ben gulped and shook his head. He might not be able to see all the details on Francesca's face but he would have sworn that he could see murder in her eyes. He shook his head again, his mind was playing tricks on him, he reasoned.

"I'm sorry Francesca. The last thing I remember is you helping me into the car because I felt a little light headed." The murderous twinkle in Francesca's eye, that Ben wasn't sure had really been there, suddenly transformed into a rage that covered her whole face, and Ben knew for sure that he wasn't imagining that and it frightened him. When she stood up, though, he was relieved to see that she was wearing a nightgown. She put her left hand on her hip and gestured for him to stand with her right hand. He couldn't help but obey. The slap to his left cheek stung but his only reaction was to lower his head and eyes to the floor. He knew he was in trouble; he just had no idea how deep.

"You bastard! I thought you were different! You're not! If you didn't want to marry me you should have just said so, instead of playing this amnesia game." Ben's eyes widened, his heart pounded and his breath kept catching in his sleep. Marry Francesca! What was she talking about? He didn't have time to think anything else before she continued. "Or better yet… you shouldn't have proposed!" Ben's jaw bobbed up and down several times before he was able to speak.

"Oh dear. What the hell happened last night?" He whispered silently to himself; he was hoping that he would wake up, again, soon and this would all be a bad dream.


	2. Confronting the brother

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Due South and I'm not making any money off the characters I've borrowed.

* * *

**Honour Bound - Part 2**

Francesca had stormed out of Benny's apartment and, despite his efforts to call her back, she hadn't even looked back.

He got himself dressed in a kind of trance and began the long walk to the consulate. As he walked he pondered his predicament. Just when he had reached the conclusion that, if indeed he had proposed to fiery Italian, he had to keep his promise to her and become her husband, Ray pulled up beside him in the Riv.

Hey Benny! Benny! Fraser!" It took the Mountie a few moments to realise that his friend was calling him. Normally this would be a welcome sight but today Benny was worried by how his friend might react to the news.

"I'm sorry Ray. I didn't see you there." Ray frowned; it wasn't like Benny to be unobservant, usually his keen observational skills led the pair on a dangerous chase after some criminal or other.

"Come on Benny. Get in. I'll give you a ride." Benny decided to bite the bullet and accept the lift his friend was offering him. Sooner or later he was going to have to face Ray and Benny knew that it would be best if the Armani-loving detective heard it from him and not the grapevine. Not that this knowledge was making it any easier for the confused Mountie.

Ray noticed his companion's silence and the way he was nervously rubbing his hand. It worried him because he knew that when something was really troubling Benny he didn't tell anyone, unless they forced him to and only then if it didn't conflict with one of his many principals. Ray figured he had nothing to lose by trying.

"Hey Benny, what's up." Benny jumped and looked at Ray, who would have sworn that he saw fear in the other man's eyes. The detective's instincts began to go into overdrive. He knew that Benny was hiding something, which he knew that Ray should know but was finding it difficult to tell him. Had the tension in the air felt less serious Ray might have been amused by the amount of information that he had gleaned from just looking in his friend's eyes, however the tension between the two friends had a very serious feel to it and Ray wanted to know why.

"Ray… I…" Ray pulled over and looked at the stuttering man.

"Come on Benny. Spit it out."

"IthinkIgotengagedlastnight." Benny whizzed the words out so fast that it took Ray a moment work out what he'd been told. When he figured it out his jaw dropped; he was gobsmacked. Benton Fraser, uptight Mountie, engaged!

"You, engaged? You're joking, right?" Ray would've laughed if Benny hadn't looked so damn lost. The Mountie ducked his head and sighed.

"I wish I was." Benny looked at Ray, his eyes wide, as if he had just been spooked. "I don't mean to sound disrespectful to the lady but …" He let the sentence hang, unfinished, in the air. Ray nodded; he understood.

"Benny if you don't want to marry her, then why don't you just tell her?" Ray asked even though he knew that Benny probably felt some kind of moral obligation to marry the woman, now that he'd proposed. He was surprised when Benny laughed. It wasn't a funny laugh; it was more of a scoff, like he found something ironic in what Ray had asked.

"That's what she asked me, as she was telling me that I had proposed."

"She had to tell you?" Benny wobbled his head in a half nod, half shake kind of motion.

"I don't actually remember proposing Ray."

"What!"

"I don't actually remember proposing Ray." Ray crossed his arms and frowned at his friend.

"Yeah I heard that. What do you mean you don't remember proposing?"

Well before I woke up this morning, the last thing I remember is… my now fiancée met me at the consulate after my shift. She gave me a cup of coffee but then I started to feel light headed and she had to help me into the car." The detective's mind was working so fast he could almost hear the cogs turning.

"So you don't remember anything between her giving you a coffee and waking up this morning to find out you were engaged?"

"Well, other than getting into the car… no." Ray nodded. He had a hunch, well more of a suspicion about what had happened. It was so obvious to him and he couldn't believe that the Mountie hadn't considered it. Then again, maybe he had, but he had likely dismissed it, he seemed to think that most people were genuinely good, trustworthy. Ray knew he had to appeal to the detective in Benny.

"What did the coffee taste like Benny?" Benny's eyebrows drew together before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. He allowed his mind to drift back to the first sip he had taken of the coffee and tried to concentrate on its taste. He opened his eyes and looked at Ray, confision clouding his blue eyes.

"Well Ray, as you are aware, coffee isn't my normal drink of choice." Ray nodded for Benny to continue. "I find the taste and smell to be very overpowering and, while I'm reasonably sure that there was something other than coffee in the cup, I can't identify it. Ray thought that he'd hit the jackpot here and that Benny was now on the same wavelength as him.

"So you think she might have drugged the coffee?" Benny didn't look at him horrified so Ray assumed the thought had at least crossed the Mountie's mind. The slightly slouched shoulders and the tint of hurt in Benny's eyes also told Ray that, even though Benny had considered the possibility that he'd been drugged by this woman, it wasn't something he had expected from her and the thought that she might have done something like that hurt him.

"That's one possibility, yes Ray. However it could also have just been sugar or sweetener in the coffee." Ray's earlier thoughts made another question pop into his head, that he couldn't believe he hadn't asked earlier.

"Who is the woman Frasier?" Benny tensed up. Partly because Ray had, yet again, mispronounced his name but mostly because this was the question he had been dreading. His answer was barely more than a whisper.

"Francesca." Ray's eyes bulged.

"You woke up next to my sister!" Benny could see this was not going to be a good conversation.

"No Ray. I woke up on the floor. You're sister was in my bed." Ray was fuming.

"How could you! My sister! Wait a minute… you said you wished you were joking… You got something against my sister? Is my family beneath you?" Benny sighed, he had been dreading this.

"No Ray. I love your family but I…"

"You what Fraser!"

"Your sister frightens me Ray. I am not afraid to jump on moving vehicles or face down armed criminals. Those situations make sense to me, they are relatively predictable, but you're sister is intimidating and unpredictable." Ray couldn't really argue with what Benny had said. He knew that Benny was intimidated by Francesca; he saw the rabbit in headlights look that his friend got every time Francesca suggested anything to him. He couldn't see Benny proposing to Francesca, but he didn't want to believe that Frannie would drug Benny to make him think that he's proposed. Something odd was going on here and Ray needed to find out what. Before his friend did something stupid, like marry his sister.


	3. Interrogating the sister

**Disclaimer: **I still don't own Due South.

**Author's notes:** I'm sorry I haven't updated this for so lon but season 3 started over here and I couldn't seem to get my Vecchio voice to work and I didn't know where to take this fic.

Thanks for all the reviews people! Much appreciated.

* * *

**Honour Bound - Part 3**

"Frannie!" Ray's voice bellowed down the mostly deserted corridor. He had just caught a glimpse of his sister moving quickly through the precinct - he was sure she had been avoiding him today. He sped up and eventually managed to catch up with her, grabbing her arm to stop her. "Frannie wait. I've gotta talk to you."

"What now Ray!" Frannie snapped, her eyes sparkling with a dare to Ray, daring him to say something to provoke her. "What do you feel the need to give me a lecture on now Ray?" Ray, however wasn't going to let his sister's sharp tone and dangerous expression put him off - he was on a mission. Grabbing her arm once more, he pulled her into an interrogation room that was nearby and empty.

"Listen Frannie, this is important okay." After studying her nails to ensure that the bright pink nail varnish she had put on earlier that day wasn't chipped, Frannie looked at Ray with a really bored expression on her face.

"Oh…" She drew the word out, sarcasm filling her voice. "It's going to one of _those_ conversations." She rolled her eyes before continuing with the same sarcastic tone. "Well why didn't you just say so!"

Ray could feel and anger burning inside himself that made his fists clench and his shoulder, neck and facial muscles clench. He spun and punched the wall, replacing the anger with pain and fear; a fear that he was just like his father. Frannie had gone quiet now, her face a little paler. Ray turned to look at her, his eyes both pleading with her to listen to him and apologising for his anger. Frannie lifted her chin and looked at him silently, her lips and eyes set in a picture of defiance. Ray took her silence to mean she would listen to him. "Frannie, what happened between you and Fraser last night?" Ray asked quietly. Frannie crossed her arms and perched on the end of the table.

"He proposed!" She relied gleefully. After seeing Frannie's smile, Ray could understand why Benny found her frightening. Ray shook off the creepy feeling that had come over him and started pacing up and down across the door, effectively blocking Frannie's exit.

"Ye I already know that. Benny told me. He also told me that he doesn't remember proposing." Frannie's smile disappeared but her facial expression didn't look any less deadly. "Tell me Frannie, what makes someone do what you want and leaves them with no memory of it in the morning?"

Frannie stood up suddenly and approached Ray until she was toe to toe with her brother. "I don't know Ray. You're the cop. Why don't you tell me?" she snarled at him. Ray didn't blink.

"What was in the coffee Frannie?" On the outside Ray looked deadly calm but on the inside his heart was beating like a runaway and a thousand butterflies were flapping around inside his stomach. Frannie just looked genuinely confused.

"Coffee?" she muttered.

"The coffee you gave Fraser at the consulate yesterday, after his shift." Frannie dropped all pretences and stared at Ray with her mouth hanging open, eyes wide open with bafflement.

"I didn't take him coffee. I mean, why would I take him coffee? He doesn't like coffee." Ray was still sceptical. He wasn't going to be fooled by his sister, who was all to good at feigning innocence.

"Frannie, where were you at half four yesterday afternoon?" Frannie's eyes opened wide in angry surprise.

"What is this Ray! An interrogation? What are you accusing me of! Just you wait 'till I tell Ma! Then you'll be sorry." Ray folded his arms against his sister's verbal assault.

"Just answer the question Frannie." Frannie sat back down on the table and gave an exaggerated sigh. She smiled, that dangerous smile she has and looked at Ray through twinkling eyes.

"I was here… working. You can ask Welsh because he was with me working on that review that's coming up. I didn't see Fraser until he called me and asked me to meet him at that Chinese restaurant owned by man that the FBI agents upset."

"He called you?" Frannie got up and brushed passed Ray. As she opened the door to leave, she turned back to look at Ray.

"Yes Ray he called me." She left the room and closed the door quietly. There was no need to slam it; she had made her point. Ray slumped in the seat by the table and put his head in his hands. He'd royally screwed up this time. He had really pissed off his sister and he still had a Mountie to save from the torment of marrying into the Vecchio household. Who was the woman who had brought Fraser that coffee? What did she have to gain from Fraser marrying Frannie? Unless she was a sadist, that would explain a lot.

* * *

Sooo... what did you think? 


End file.
